Winds Of Confusion
by Rowen Hashiba
Summary: This wasn't his battle; it was hers. That's why their friends were trapped and why she intended to fight to save them. But she wouldn't be fighting it alone, not this time. He would be right there beside her...now and forever." R&R-Flames welcome!


**Disclaimer:** No, I do not own Inuyasha. As much as I wish, I just don't.  
  
**Big thing:** In movie 3 Inuyasha looses the prayer beads. Kagome can't sit Inuyasha any longer.

=================================================================**Winds of Confusion  
  
Chapter One: The Final Battle**   
  
=================================================================His amber orbs scanned the forest. Darting left and right, he had long ago abandoned the group in search for his enemy. The one who had ruined his life, his chance at love, his chance at having a place. Blood dribbled in rivers down his arms and back. The crimson red staining the perfect peach of his skin at every cut and gash on his body. Inuyasha merely gritted his teeth and continued his treck. His hatori was drenched in blood, sweat, and some of Kagome's tears before he had shoved her off in order to protect her. He would not allow Naraku to hurt her. Kikyo meant next to nothing at the moment, but as long as Naraku's focus was on her, everything would be fine.  
  
He would find Naraku.  
  
No matter what the cost.  
  
To save Kagome. To save his friends.  
  
Blood rolled off his hatori and spilled onto the green grass, illumanated by the moon light . The moon made the blood look like the purest of water, settling on the blades moving only closer to the earth when the gentle breeze stirred the blades.  
  
Kirara landed with an unusual grace onto the ground, just a few feet in front of Inuyasha. Kagome sat injured on the neko youkai's back. Kagome's brown eyes churned with sadness and pain. She chewed her bottom lip to keep herself from whimpering in pain. Inuyasha's ambr orbs filled with anger. Kagome faced him with a courage she had never before felt.  
  
"Why are you stopping me, Kagome?! Have you betrayed to Naraku as well?!" Inuyasha stalked forward, Tetsuseiga long gone back in the forest. This sword was the last of the hanyou's worries.  
  
"Inuyasha...we need to go back and think of a different tactic. We've already lost--" Kirara's front legs gave in as she slammed painfully to the ground. The cat demon shut her eyes painfully, but would not allow Kagome to get off. She needed to keep what was left of Kagome in one piece.  
  
"Shut up, bitch." Cold hard ice was all Kagome saw when she looked down into Inuyasha's eyes. Hers slowly filled with pain, hurt, and confusion. She shook her head to chase away the tears. His heart was else where. Somehow, she knew this would happen. All Inuyasha **ever** saw was Kikyo. Didn't matter where or who he was looking at...it was **always** Kikyo to him....wait...why was she thinking this? She knew that wasn't the reason....she was doubting him....but there was no reason....was there?  
  
Kagome swallowed, her uniform was torned to bits. She was barely covered in the kimono Sango had worn over her taiji outfit...Kagome clinched her eyes closed as those words bit it...Sango _had_ worn this kimono..never again. If Naraku had his way, neither would she. Sighing deeply she forced the words out as she gripped Miroku's staff tightly, "At least go back and get Tetsuseiga before the demon takes you over, Inuyasha. Please..." Kagome was never used to begging, but there was not much she could do elseways.  
  
"No. I don't have time to go back for it nor do I have time to stop and chat with you any longer." Inuyasha jumped into the tree directly above and jumped to the next, leaving only the few drops of blood that landed on the milky skin of her face as evidence that he had ever been there. The beads slid down Kagome's face like rain on a summer's night. Warm and horrifying all at the same time, she felt torn into four neat little pieces. Sango, Miroku, Shippo. They had all been taken. To be used against Inuyasha and Kagome at a later date, no less. She layed her head gently against Kirara's. A few tears traced her jaw line, only to mix with Inuyasha's blood and fall onto Kirara's back, then slide silently to the ground. A new fire was lit inside her eyes as she slid off of the injured demon cat. Soothingly she rubbed the cat.  
  
"I'm going to get the others back, no matter what, okay?" Kirara growled softly as she reverted to her small form. Kagome gently lifted her up and set her inside the side pack that Kaede had sent with them. She then ran as fast as her injured legs would carry her. Inuyasha and Naraku's conversation reaching her ears.  
  
"Naraku! Show yourself!"  
  
A deep chuckle eminated from the wood. "Why?" Kagome spotted the red fire rat kimono from her spot. She redoubled her efforts in reaching him quickly. While she was running, Kagome took this time to pull her bow and an arrow from her quiver on her back. Setting the arrow carefully on the notch in the bow she pointed the arrow to the ground, prepared for a quick attack. Kagome just prayed that her aim would be true.  
  
"I'll find you, I can smell your demon reek from a mile away!" Inuyasha's eyes darted in every direction. Stepping forward barely an inch, seeking out his 'prey' with apt skill.  
  
"If you can smell me, why haven't you managed to save your precious Kikyo?" The white baboon suit appeared ever so subtlely behind Inuyasha, high in the trees. Kagome spotted him and readied her arrow. Closing her eyes slightly, she bit her tongue and shot. Right through the fake Naraku and into a tree trunk. Kagome gripped tighter on her bow. He was buying time. Waiting for Inuyasha's human blood to ebb away only to be flooded over with demon blood.  
  
"I'm just giving you a head start that's all. I'll come and kill you, then I'll save Kikyo." Inuyasha whipped around to see Kagome and narrowed his eyes angrily. _Why hasn't she left yet?! This battle is too dangerous for her!_  
  
Kagome looked at the ground. Tears filled her eyes once more, stinging her cheeks, the corners of her eyes pained from all the tears she had shed that day. However, once again Kikyo took presidence in Inuyasha's mind and heart. He doesn't even care Naraku captured our friends. _Why? Just last night he was enjoying their company....and even came close to....kissing me...._  
  
Naraku's laughter went from manly to femine in a few short chuckles. "What's the matter, Inuyasha? The almightly hanyou too weak?" Kikyo's voice resounded. Making the forest seem even darker, at least for Kagome.  
  
"Stop the tricks Naraku!" Inuyasha cried. His eyes scanning the canopy. Red was starting to rim the amber of his eyes. He would loose control in not too long, leaving Kagome with the task of defeating Naraku and reassembling the Shikon no Tama..._Kagome, get your god damned ass out of here!_ Inuyasha took a glance toward her, she was crying again. Aiming her arrow, Miroku's staff sticking out of her quiver.  
  
"Who said it was a trick? Those very words passed through Kikyo's lips..I promise..." Naraku teased before giving way to another bout of laughter  
  
Kagome noticed a slight movement in the bushes beside Inuyasha. White was backgrounding the green instead of the forest. She locked her eyes on the position. Naraku lunged at Inuyash with speed not even Sesshomaru could have rivaled.  
  
Kagome's eyes widened, shock and fear filling her entire being. She threw down her bow and cupped her hands around her mouth, attempting to make a bit of a megaphone, "INUYASHA! LOOK OUT BESIDE YOU!"  
  
Inuyasha snapped his head to side his amber orbs filling with fear for the very first time this was the end. _Kagome! Run! Please!_ No thoughts entered Inuyasha's mind expect four last words, never to be heard except by his no longer controllable mind. _I love you, Kagome_.  
  
Specks of blood flew into the air, the moon shining on them radiantly as the spheres of crimson landed on the ground harshly, causing them to split. The blood littered the earth. A fierce roar released itself.  
  
Kagome need not to look at Inuyasha to know what had happened to her beloved hanyou. She turned her back and gripped what very little bit of Inuyasha she had left, the shard of the Shikon no Tama that resided around her neck. What very little that would do for the lost human blood that splatterd on Kagome's barren feet. _This is all my fault..If I had just made Sota go get Buyo that day, nothing would have happened and no one would have died, no one would be being tortured, Inuyasha wouldn't be a demon_. Kagome slammed her palms against her ears. If Inuyasha came after her, she would not fight. She would do as Miroku did when Naraku had beaten him to near death.================================================================="I will accept my death unflinchingly. I will accpept the pain gracefully." Miroku sighed as he held his gut, blood pouring out. His eye brows furrowed as he looked up to Sango and spared her a smile.  
  
"You shouldn't be so pesimistic. We will win the battle yet." Her voice was that of an angel. He was finding it harder to breath now. Looking up at Sango, he demanded attention. She stared at him gently. "Yes, Miroku?" she asked softly.  
  
"I never got to tell you before." Sango hobbled over to Miroku and touched his shoulder lightly, proding him to tell her. Miroku looked directly at the ground, coughing up crimson colored liquids. It didn't matter any more. He was the last of his line. He had left his father and his before that, down. To be defeated so quickly in life, when he had successfully supressed the Wind Tunnel for so very long.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"I love you more than life itself. I die....." Miroku gasped for breath as he saw Naraku coming back toward them. "...today in hopes I will meet you in the next life and you perhaps will return my feelings...." He let the hand from his gut fall and grab onto his staff as blood gushed from the wound, he looked toward Kagome whom was trying to save Shippo from a group of demons...he chuckled slightly, joy less and hollow, "..and we will live in the life here-after happy. Together."  
  
Sango smiled as Naraku came down on them, "We will die together, Miroku, and our love will allow us to live happily and together in the life here- after. Together." They exchanged smiles and grabbed hands as Naraku attacked and dragged their dying bodies along behind him. Miroku's staff falling from the air bounced silently on the bloodstained ground. Shippo screamed one last time as the blood poured from the wounds on his backs, given to him by the demon swarm.  
  
"KAGOME! MOMA!!" Shippo screamed wildly as he flailed his arms and legs. He reached out despretly for her hand.  
  
"SHIPPO!" Kagome chased the demons as far she could before one of the demons lashed out at her, biting into her leg. She screamed out in pain. Kirara crawled toward her, hoping to perhaps aid Kagome in some way. Instead Kagome lay holding her leg as crimson droplets fell from the circular holes in her milky skin. They rained down on Sango's kimono and the ground like a hard summer storm. She held in her scream of agony. Kagome gritted her teeth and thrashed on the ground slightly before Inuyasha scooped her up gently and ran through the forest for someways toward the well.  
  
"Kagome, go home." It was a short, simple command. Not to be argued with, but she did anyways. He towered over her, forcing his emotions to become nonexistant. He shoved them into the back of his mind, trying to forget they ever even existed.  
  
Her brown eyes looked up at him, filled with pure pain and angish. For once Kagome just wanted to tell him that this was not his fight. It was hers.  
  
She was the one who went into the well house that day to catch Buyo.  
  
She was the one who went into the village to find some sanity.  
  
She was the one who had shattered the Shikon no Tama.  
  
For once, this was her fight. And she wasn't afraid to admit it.  
  
Through gritted teeth, Kagome managed out, "Not on your life." Inuyasha merely crossed his arms, pretending not to care about the fact she was in complete and utter pain. Inside, he was being torn to pieces.  
  
"Keh. Stupid bitch. You should have never have came back. I woulda never had this problem if you had stayed your ass in your own god damned era." Inuyasha didn't look at her, he looked toward the sky praying for some sort of sign. _Will sending her away save us? Will it limit Naraku somehow, someway?  
_  
Kagome knew he was faking this. He hadn't cussed at her this much in a long, long time. She just up at him and decided to use a cuss word from her time. "Shut the fuck up, Inuyasha. This is my fight. Stay out of my way."  
  
Inuyasha's ear's flicked. Kagome....cussed....at him? He blinked utterly shocked. Worse yet, Kagome had used the worst cuss word he had ever heard. A word not even _he_ would touch. Yet she had just used it in her sentence. He was obliviously making a mistake trying to act all tough. "Hmph...either go or I drop your ass down the well."  
  
Kagome forced herself up, the blood was starting to clot. Some slid down her leg and dried making her leg sticky, but she would live. Leaning against a tree she narrowed her eyes. "You can play this all you want, Inuyasha. I love you, but this is not your fight. So shut up before I have to pin you to a tree in order to defeat Naraku."  
  
Inuyasha's gaze softened, "I love you too, Kagome Higurashi. That's why I want you to live. So I have someone who Naraku can't torture, harm, or kill." He said, barely above a whisper. Narrowing his eyes he stared at her, "Go home, bitch." Kagome knew it. He was trying to fool Naraku. Ordinarily she would sit him. So she took the next best route.  
  
Kagome slapped Inuyasha's cheek as hard as she could. "I will fight, I will live, and I will save our friends." Kagome raised her hand to silence him, "This conversation is over." She hobbled off as Inuyasha started to search for Naraku.  
  
It was then that she noticed the blood.  
  
It was then that she noticed Inuyasha didn't care whose fight it was.  
  
It was then that she noticed he was fighting because he loved her, because he wanted to protect her.  
  
It was then that she first hesitated and looked back toward the well and shook her head. This was the needed course. This was her plan. When you make a plan, you stick to it. And that's just what Kagome was going to do.  
  
Kirara knelt down in front of Kagome. She looked at the demon cat and shook her head. The poor thing was far too injured for her to ride. Kirara gave her a warning growl. Kagome nodded understandingly. She wanted to save Sango just as must as she did. Just as much as Inuyasha did. Kirara wanted to save Miroku and Shippo just as much as Inuyasha and Kagome. So they were going to. First things first- follow Inuyasha and stop him.  
  
Kirara made haste in following Inuyasha through the forest. About three minutes into their ride, Kagome could just make out a flyng demon biting into the side of Inuyasha in which he wore Tetsuseiga. Kagome whimpered. If he lost Tetsuseiga, there was no hope. No sooner had she thought this did a black metal sheeth fly past her head, nearly missing.  
  
She knelt her head in prayer. If anyone was up there, Kagome prayed they were listening to her pleas.=================================================================Naraku sat triumpantly in the trees now, knowing that Inuyasha had reverted into his demon form and wouldn't care who or what he had killed. Naraku merely had to acquire the Tetsuseiga before the human girl did. _Which shouldn't be a problem since there was now a savage Inuyasha running rampent. Or should now be referred to something else? Inuyasha means Half- Dog Demon. He could easily kill any demon within his path at this point_. Naraku smuggly noted these facts. He could, most likely, even decieve this demon form into doing as he pleased. Who knows...experiementation was necessary...  
  
A smirked played at Naraku's mouth. He could also very easily play God at this point, so to speak. He could kill her friends or make her to suffer as he did Inuyasha and Kikyo...His mind made it's decision. That houshi would prove quite useful under his power, Sango would most enjoy being back with her pathetic taiji brother again, and that young kitsune youkai could become great given the _correct_ influences...Kagura would never question another order with this much to stand up against. After all, had these three not helped to defeat her before? With or without the entire Shikon jewels, things just got a helluva lot more interesting. Plot twist indeed. Looking down at Kagome, Naraku shook his head. Pathetic.  
  
"So what are you going to do now, Kagome?" He asked nonchanlantly, watching as Inuyasha ripped apart trees and the blood flow grew from him. Naraku looked back down at her. Kagome looked back up at him with a look of utter hatred. Good. That was what he wanted. Pain, hatred, confusion, suffering. What could be better?  
  
"You....You...." Kagome stalked toward him and pulled out Miroku's staff. Naraku chuckled..  
  
"I'm so scared of a near dead miko threatening me with a monk's staff."  
  
"Son of bitch...." Kagome stood directly below the tree he was sitting in, "Come down here and face me, coward!!" Her face was contorted in complete hatred. Oh how he was enjoying this. All he needed now was the big Noh play ending where the oni actually won.  
  
Naraku jumped from tree to tree in order to avoid the girl as the heard growls approaching her. Best to leave then to sit and be the next to go, neh?  
  
Kirara sprung from the side pack and ran underneth Kagome, transformed quickly and darted toward the well before the girl had even realized what was happening. When she registered that they were heading back, she gripped the neko's mane. "We have to stop for Tetsuseiga and go back for Inuyasha." The cat demon conformed to half this request. She stopped and let Kagome get the sword then ran for the well as fast as she possibly could. Kagome yelled but stopped after five minutes, her voice was dead and gone.  
  
Growling of a vicious animal filled the forest as Kirara redoubled her efforts and pushed herself to reach the Bone Eaters well and shove Kagome through. The neko youkai made it until the well was within sight and collaspsed from exhaustion. Kagome was thrown from the cats back as she transformed back into her small state. She couldn't and wouldn't be left here to die by Inuyasha's unknowing hands. Kagome ran back to her and ran with her, jumping down the well just as the growls were right behind her.  
  
A fiercous roar was the last sound Kagome heard from the Sengoku Jidai as she landed safely on her side of the well and began to climb up the ladder, Kirara craddled in her right arm like a baby. Kagome smiled down at the demon cat, trying to comfort her as she stepped off the ladder and onto the wooden floor of the well house.  
  
Morning birds in the trees announced the dawn as she stepped outside. Kirara lost conciousness in Kagome's arms. Kagome's eyes widened in fear. "Please, Kirara, don't leave me too. I'll have no one if you leave me. Please." She begged as the tears began. They flooded her vision.=================================================================A strange buzzing noise filled Kagome's ears. She could faintly hear her name being spoken. Who? What? Why?  
  
A pillow slammed straight into her face. She was dreaming. Remembering that last horrible day in the Sengoku Jidai. She opened her eyes slowly to find her white cieling above her. The sun was just cracking in through her windows. Her comfy baby blue pj's clung to her sweaty form. Kagome looked up at Sota. He was grinning as he stood over her with another pillow at the ready.  
  
"Breakfast is ready."  
  
Kagome nodded. She spoke to no one except Kirara, but only when no one else could hear her. She couldn't face her family and tell him what happened. Kagome sat up in bed and found Kirara still asleep on the kity bed her mother had gotten for her and the sheethed Tetsuseiga sat regally in the cornor of her room, absorbing the morning rays and reflecting them beautifully. Tears filled her again. Sobs threatened to rack her body, but she wasn't going to let that happen to day. It had happened every morning since she had return over a year ago. Kagome was going to change that. After all, if she kept busting out into tears, there was no way she could return. She got up and walked to the closet and opened the mirrored doors gently.  
  
Sango's kimono hung there, calling out to be worn back into battle. Miroku's staff lay against the rest of Kagome's clothes next to the kimono. She sighed. If anything had happened to them, it was all her fault. She would never forgive herself.  
  
But for now, she would gather her wits.  
  
She would strengthen herself, body, mind, and spirit.  
  
Then she would return.  
  
She would prevail.  
  
Love always prevails, in the end.  
  
Right?=================================================================**A/N:** Suggestions? Comments? Ideas? Flames? Anything? Please read and review! Its much appreciated!!================================================================= 


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